1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an improvement of facsimile machine and particularly to a facsimile machine which can reduce the image data as small as possible such that even a large volume of image data can be printed on a single recording sheet of standard size.
2. Background Art
Facsimile machines which use recording sheets of predetermined size or standard size paper such as A4 or B4 size paper, instead of a roll of thermosensitive paper, are developed and used in recent years. Referring to FIG. 7 of the accompanying drawings, when this type of facsimile machine is used to transmit image data D1 drawn on a sending sheet T100 of A4 size to another facsimile machine 200 from a facsimile machine 100 through a telephone line L, various pieces of information are added to the image data D1 before the image data D1 reaches another facsimile machine 200. Such various pieces of information may be company name, telephone number, facsimile number and ID code of the sending side. Upon receiving the image data D1 and accompanying piece of information P, the receiving side facsimile 200 prints the image data D1 and accompanying information P on a recording sheet R100.
However, since the receiving side facsimile machine 200 uses the fixed size paper (A4 size paper), it cannot print the image data over the A4 size. Further, since the accompanying information P should be printed on the same sheet, a certain margin is necessary in the A4 size sheet. Accordingly, when the sending sheet T100', all the space of which is occupied by the image data D2, is sent from the facsimile machine 100, the data transmitted from the facsimile machine 100 (D2 and P) are not completely printed on a single sheet of paper R100'. As a result, the information P and part of the image data D2' are printed on the first sheet R100' and the rest of image data D2" is printed on the second sheet R101' with the information P. This occurs regardless of the volume of remaining data D2". Specifically, even if tile remaining data D2" has only a volume of one line, two sheets are required to print all the data from the facsimile machine 100. In this case, an operator of the receiving side facsimile machine 200 should see two sheets of paper to grasp the data sent from the sending side facsimile machine 100 and the consumption of the recording sheets increases accordingly. Of course, if the sheet on the sending side is larger (or longer) than the A4 size sheet, two A4 size sheets are required on the receiving side.
Regarding these shortcomings, developed is a facsimile machine which can reduce the size of image data, as shown in FIG. 8(a) of the accompanying drawings. With this type of facsimile machine, the number of lines (A) of the sending sheet is counted and the number of lines (B) of the recording sheet is memorized. Then, the number B is divided by the number A and the resultant is taken as the reduction ratio. The image data to be sent is reduced with this reduction ratio and such a reduced image data is printed on the recording sheet, as shown in FIG. 8(a). According to this type of facsimile machine, it is possible to print on a single sheet of paper all the data sent from the sending side facsimile machine, regardless of the length of the sending sheet.
However, with the above described facsimile machine, the number of the lines of the sending sheet is counted, but the number of lines for the image data drawn on the sending sheet is not counted. In other words, the number A is determined by the length of the sending sheet, independently of the length of the image data. Therefore, even if the lower part of the sending sheet is blank, the image data on the sending sheet is always reduced with the reduction ratio of B/A, as shown in FIG. 8(b). In this case, the image data is unnecessarily reduced and the image information may be deteriorated when it is printed on the receiving sheet.
Referring now to FIG. 11 of the accompanying drawings, which shows another conventional example, when the image data is transmitted from the facsimile machine to another facsimile machine with the information of sending party 13 (sending party's name, date, time and so on), the image data is printed on the receiving sheet Y with various pieces of information 13. In this case, the sending party's information 18 is printed in the top portion L of the receiving (or recording) sheet Y and the image data is printed therebelow. In other words, the image data is shifted downward by the length L in the sub scanning direction when it is printed on the recording sheet Y. If the end of the image data protrudes from the end of the recording sheet Y and the recording sheet Y is a cut sheet of standard size, the protruding portion is printed on the next sheet.
In many cases, nothing is written in the lower portion of the sending sheet and nothing is printed on the second sheet on the receiving side. (Only the information 18 is printed on the top line of the second recording sheet.) This wastes the recording sheets.